During the manufacture of upholstered furniture, it is conventional to employ tacks and staples to fasten upholstery fabric to the underlying furniture frame. Various tack strips are known for such purpose. For example, conventional tack strips include a ribbon of metal from which generally triangularly shaped nails or tacks are punched and bent at right angles. See, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,647,610, 6,857,178 and 6,989,186 (the entire contents of each such patent and patent application being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference).
Sometimes tack and/or staple guns are employed so as to fasten upholstery fabric to the furniture frame by means of individual fasteners such as staples, tacks, brads and/or nails. In this regard, a tail portion of the fabric is typically first fastened to the furniture frame by means of the fasteners so that the remaining portion may be folded over, and thereby cover, the fastener heads. It can be appreciated however that over time pressure or rubbing of the covering fabric portion on the tack or staple head will result in fabric wear.
It has been conventional practice to place a paperboard strip against the fabric tail and then drive the individual fasteners through the paperboard strip and fabric tail to secure the fabric to the underlying furniture frame. Such conventional practice has however not been entirely satisfactory Specifically, the fastener heads are still placed in contact with the covering fabric section and thus cause localized fabric abrasion and wear to occur. The likelihood of fabric abrasion and wear is more acute even with such a conventional paperboard strip in those instances where the tack or staple does not fully penetrate into the wood frame of the furniture piece or bends due to improper and/or incomplete installation.
Therefore, it would especially be desirable if upholstery fabric wear due to underlying tack and staple heads could be eliminated if not significantly minimized. It is toward fulfilling such a need that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in a protective strip for use in the manufacture of upholstered furniture comprised of a fastening strip portion, a cover strip portion and a hinge portion which flexibly connects the fastening and cover strip portions to one another. In use, therefore, the protective strip of the present invention may be positioned such that a portion of the upholstery fabric is sandwiched between the fastening strip portion thereof and a region of the furniture frame to which the fabric is to be attached. Suitable fasteners (e.g., staples, tacks, nails, brads and the like) may then be physically driven through the fastening strip portion and the underlying fabric portion into the furniture frame. In such a manner, the fabric portion is attached physically to the furniture frame.
Once the fastening strip portion has been attached to the furniture frame, the remaining fabric portion may be doubled over the fastened tail portion which in turn causes the cover strip portion to be folded over the fastening strip portion. The heads of the fasteners are therefore physically covered by the cover strip portion so as to prevent contact with the overlaid fabric. As such, rubbing of the fabric against the fastener heads is prevented so as to thereby preclude (or at least substantially minimize) fabric abrasion and wear.
These and other aspects and advantages will become more apparent after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.